This week’s steps: 6 purchases and 7 dividends

Notice I put an exclamation point on the end of that first sentence and not a question mark. Consumer staples like Kimberly-Clark and Clorox, two companies I bought shares of this week, are scraping 52-week lows … and they’re not alone. Procter and Gamble, the Kraft Heinz Company and a whole slew of others are all tanking right now and, well, that’s a good thing for those of us looking to pile up shares and increase our passive-income streams.

The loss in share value may hurt the eyes a bit, but there’s an easy solution: change the way you look at dips. This week’s 10% drop by 3M, another company I added a share of, isn’t about the $20/share hit on your portfolio balance. It’s about the $20/share discount you get when you pick up more.

Value is what it’s all about, people. Now that I have the 150 companies I want in my portfolio – companies I want to hold for many, many years to come – I can start adding to the ones that are on sale … which is exactly what I did this week.

This Week’s Purchases

I started the week by doubling my positions in Kimberly-Clark (KMB) and Ventas (VTR) on Monday. That’s not saying much considering I only had one share of each prior to the purchases, but it’s something.

VTR was slightly down as the share I scooped up for $46.79 only lowered my cost-basis by a couple bucks. KMB was a different story. I bought my first share for $122.91 in February of 2017. This week’s, though, was considerably cheaper as I nabbed a share for $98.46, dropping my cost-basis from $122.91 all the way down to $110.68.

I also bought three shares of New Residential Investment Corp. (NRZ) for $49.50 ($16.50/share) Monday, giving me 55 shares at an average cost of $17.12. The company, which makes up 4.26% of my portfolio, is one of my favorite income plays thanks to its 12.02% dividend yield.

I did a little more shopping Wednesday, grabbing a share of Clorox (CLX) for $117.85 and 3M (MMM) for $198.06, and finished out the week by purchasing five shares of AT&T (T) for $164.32 ($32.86/share) during Thursday’s dip.

All the companies, with NRZ being the lone exception, are pretty much right at 52-week lows, which means the dividend yields are as good as they’ve been in a long time. Like I said at the beginning of the post … now is the time to take advantage. I raised my forward annual dividend income by $32.44 this week alone. I’m up to $786.70.

This Week’s Dividends

I’ll keep the dividend roundup short and to the point: I earned a combined $29.37 from seven different companies this week.

Most of that came from NRZ, which passed along $26 ($0.50/share of 52 shares). Others came from MKC ($0.52), DG ($0.29), CSCO ($1.65 for 5 shares), CMCSA ($0.19), SYY ($0.36) and GE ($0.36 for 3 shares).

The nearly $30 worth of dividends bring me to $62.23 for the month and $195.29 for the year. Before this month, I’d never cracked the $50 mark in dividends in a given month. That said, thanks almost exclusively to the growth of my NRZ position, I’ll obviously set a new personal monthly dividend record by the time April comes to a close.